


Gambit

by JoAsakura



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-28
Updated: 2013-06-07
Packaged: 2017-12-13 06:25:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/821079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoAsakura/pseuds/JoAsakura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Garrus decides to be... proactive. Set prior to ME3</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Get The Band Back Together

It was a fine office, Garrus had to admit.

It had plants, and a large window overlooking a silvery, scenic landscape. The Hierarchy had given him a staff and desk and a manual of regulations that, if it had been actual printed matter, would have served nicely as a tool he could bludgeon himself to death with in the face of the bureaucracy he was drowning in.

With a moan, Garrus Vakarian laid his head down on the impressive desk they'd gifted him with and glared at the holo-sign on his door. [ANTI-REAPER EXPLORATORY TASK FORCE]

He flicked a paper clip at it and sighed. It had been two months since Shepard had voluntarily turned himself and the Normandy over to the Alliance in the hopes they would listen to him in the wake of the Alpha Relay tragedy. Two months since Garrus had returned home and convinced his father to help him convince the Hierarchy that Things Were Going To Get Ugly.

In true bureaucratic tradition, they gave Garrus an office, threw some credits at him and expected him to plod along through channels designed to keep him busy.

"This is crap." He said, staring at a fern. The plant withheld opinion but Garrus was not a turian who enjoyed rules, regulations or official channels. The precious time Shepard had bought the Galaxy was wasting away and he was damned if he was going to let that happen any further.

~~

Liara rubbed her eyes and stared out at the rusty plains of Mars. Nearby, Glyph floated, placidly tracking the volumes of data her second career as the Shadow Broker required.

it hadn't been hard to weasel her way into the staff at the Mars Research Station. But despite the wealth of data they were chipping away at, her sources continued to confirm that the Alliance and the Council both were firmly shuttering their eyes to the evidence Shepard's team had brought back from beyond the Omega-4 relay.

The batarians were calling for his execution and sabres were rattled on both sides while they all ignored the threat that was coming.

"Doctor T'soni. You have an incoming vid call." Glyph chirped, pulling Liara out her thoughts. "It's Director Vakarian of the.."

"I know who it is, Glyph." she chided gently. "Put him through."

Garrus looked exhausted on the other end, and it was clearly the middle of the night where he was on Palaven. "Garrus." She said with a little smile. "It's good to see you, *Director*."

"Liara." Garrus laughed and took a swig of something. "I've been thinking." He drawled. "I'm drowning in paperwork and Shepard's in jail and no one seems to care that Ancient Death Machines from beyond are going to destroy us all."

"I know." She rested her hand on her chin. "We might've found something interesting in the archives here on Mars, but so far, I can't get anyone but Hackett to even look at it, and his hands are tied."

"Right." Garrus set his mug down and leaned into the vid camera, mandibles clacking in excitement. "Liara. I want to get the band back together and stop this before it's too late. We need Shepard."

"Garrus, everyone is.." She started.

"If you expect me to believe you don't know exactly where everyone who's ever served on the Normandy is, you're delusional, Liara." Garrus's fringe twitched slightly and a flush of purple spread across the delicate blue scales of her face.

"Fine. Yes. I know where everyone is, Garrus. But I also know Shepard gave himself and the Normandy and all the data over to the alliance in the hopes they would finally believe him." She shook her head. "If we do what I think you're suggesting, we could all end up as criminals."

"Wouldn't be the first time." He sat back in his seat, one talon scratching the scars on his face. "Tell you what. Can you put me in touch with Kaidan Alenko?"

"Garrus no~." Liara scowled. "What are you..?"

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure it'll be fine." Garrus clicked his mandibles again and turned off the vid.

He was pretty certain this wasn't going to blow up in his face.


	2. A Terrible Idea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaidan receives a visitor

(a few days later)

It was a perfectly nice office, Kaidan had to admit.

While it wasn't exactly a balcony overlooking English Bay, and he most certainly couldn't enjoy a beer there, it was comfortable and efficient. It suited an officer in charge of the Alliance's new biotic covert division.

He sat back, pushing a stack of reports aside as he glared at his appointment calendar. He had never served with another biotic before the Normandy. Before.. Shepard. Had known they'd been directed to so many L2 extremist assignments because of who they were. But the two of them had proven to command that two or more human biotics working as a team had enormous potential, and they'd been keen to capitalise on that.

(Shepard.) He could see the building where they were keeping him from his office. A white tower amongst the others in Vancouver. Kaidan had put in a request to see him shortly after he'd gotten the news that Shepard had turned himself and the Normandy in, but it had been summarily denied.

_(You need to stay away from him right now.) Anderson had said later that night during a conference call. (I know it's hard, Kaidan. But Shepard's practically radioactive. After everything you've worked to achieve, if you're even seen near him, it'll destroy your career. You know as well as I do that he wouldn't want that. Let me deal with things.)_

_(My career won't matter if he was telling the truth, Admiral.) Kaidan had retorted, but it didn't matter. Shepard might as well have been beyond the Omega-4 relay still._

It had taken Kaidan a while to understand why his career had risen so quickly after the destruction of the first Normandy. Joker had been grounded indefinitely before going AWOL and joining Cerberus. The alien members of the crew (who the Alliance had simultaneously held up as a new model of interspecies cooperation and tried so desperately to get off their flagship stealth frigate) had been thanked and sent away before they'd even had a chance to catch their breath on rescue. Chakwas had been shuffled off to Mars.

But Kaidan? His career took off. Or so he'd thought at first. It was sometime after Horizon, soaked in booze and trying to drink away the stricken look on Shepard's face, that the realisation hit him between the eyes.

They were promoting him into positions where he could do the least amount of damage.

The nagging doubt lingered even when he'd sobered up. When they'd promoted him again, given him the task of creating a covert biotics team, he'd accepted the challenge. Not just because it was his job, but because he had every intention of showing his own insecurities that he was worthy of it.

And now. And now it all had the potential to come crashing down around him. He prodded the vidscreen with his toe, but the name didn't change.

His secretary had set him up with a 1:45pm visit with the Director of the Turian Heirarchy's Anti-Reaper Exploratory Task Force. Garrus Vakarian was on earth, and there was no way Kaidan could gracefully get out of seeing him.

~~

"Nice office." Garrus drawled as he lurked his way into the room. "I appreciate you seeing me, Kaidan. Been a while."

"That it has, Garrus." Kaidan gestured to a couch and his assistant brought in a tray of dextro-coffee-substitute. "I'm not sure why we couldn't have just talked on a commcall. You travelled an awful long way."

"I like to do things in person." Garrus shrugged around the straw in his sharp toothed mouth before his mandibles jerked in disgust. "Although it might have saved me from this coffee."

"Trust me, the human version isn't any better, here." Kaidan said and they both laughed uncomfortably. "Garrus. If you're here to see if I can get you in to see Shepard, let's just get his out of the way, ok? I can't even get in to see him."

"You've... tried?" Garrus blinked.

Kaidan tried not to let that sting, but it needled anyways. The argument with Shepard on Horizon had been defensive on both sides, but in the end, he'd shut Shepard down and walked away. It had seemed like the right thing to do at the time, but time had given him perspective. And he hadn't liked what he'd seen.

"I'm not going to apologise for not coming with you. And I still don't trust that Cerberus' intentions were all that noble." He said firmly. "But I should have listened to him. To you. I knew. I knew it was really him the moment I.." Kaidan paused, suddenly aware he was about to reveal what Shepard had truly meant to him in front of Garrus.

The turian snorted. "Please. We all knew." He waved a talon dismissively. "Liara was crushed when it sunk in. And Wrex? Just wondered if humans breed like Asari."

Kaidan felt his face turn red despite every meditation trick he'd ever learned, then sighed. "Fine. Then. Yeah. Every sense I had told me he was the real shepard. But everything I knew said not to trust what I was seeing. Feeling."

"You know he was right about the Reapers coming, Kaidan." Garrus leaned forward, predator's eyes focused on Kaidan. "And we're running out of time."

"The parliament doesn't believe him. Everything I've heard is painting him as a delusional mass murderer at *best*." Kaidan didn't shrink back from Garrus's gaze, he only shook his head. "You should hear what the batarians are calling him."

"I have." Garrus said. "Which is why we're going to break him out of prison, steal back the Normandy and stop the Reapers before they can make it into occupied space."

~~

If Kaidan had been drinking something, he would have choked to death. "WHAT. GARRUS. NO." He sputtered. "Don't even joke.."

"Does this look like a joking face to you?" Garrus said calmly.

"I've never been able to tell." Kaidan scowled at him. "Garrus. You could start a second.. first contact.. second contact war just by talking about this. Hell, you shouldn't tell ME this. I'm obligated to.."

"..infiltrate this rogue group so you can bring them down from the inside if necessary." The turian said with what Kaidan thought was a smile.

"You're serious."

"As a headshot." Garrus replied.

Kaidan blinked. There was no way this would end well.


	3. Not Quite A Resort Hotel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shepard gets an unexpected guest

It was better than some places he'd found himself in, Shepard had to admit.

The room was nicer than your average Alliance prison cell, but not quite up to 5-star hotel ratings, he mused, sweat beading on his forehead as he did his pushups. A ten foot by ten foot space with a bed and a desk and a wall of books that Anderson had requisitioned for him.

The limited-use terminal in the corner pumped out Expel 10's most recent hit as Shepard lowered himself to the floor and lay, facedown, on the thin carpet, pondering his life choices.

"I'm not sure what I expected." He mumbled into the fibres before rolling onto his back. The flashing lights of passing skycar traffic flickered across the ceiling.

Two months. It had been a relief when Hackett had asked him to come in. The torture Kenson's team put him through, the weight of 300,000 souls he'd tried so desperately to warn,the knowledge that even in the face of that, the Reapers would still come- it ate away at him. He knew the Admiral carried his own guilt over what had happened at the Alpha Relay, but Hackett had sworn to him the deaths would not be in vain. Had promised him.

Two months later, the reapers were coming ever closer and still, no one cared. It was a tuesday night. He hated tuesdays. After all, that was the day he spent in the office of an ever-changing roster of Alliance Psych specialists. Thursdays were similar, but called "debriefing" days. They kept expecting him to slip up, change his story, show the face of the Cerberus traitor, the psychopath, the Butcher of Bahak.

He never did.

Wednesdays were better. He got to go out and run the loop of the rooftop garden with the burly, broken lieutenant they'd saddled him with. He liked James, despite the fact that he was mostly certain the higher-ups hoped that Shepard might take the young man into his confidence and reveal that the Reapers were all a lie.

The rest of the time, he sat in this room, ten feet by ten feet, writing emails that the alliance analysed for hidden messages. Emails to Kaidan, to Anderson, to Emily Wong. He never heard back from any of them.

~~~

The knock at his door startled him and Shepard propped himself up on his elbows. Only James knocked, a deference to the Commander he respected. "Hey, Commander. I brought you dinner." The big man said as Shepard let him in. "Apparently someone finally got your request for horsemeat." he pulled a disgusted face. "Or, horse-flavour tofu. I.."

Shepard raked back his hair with a laugh. It had been getting long, and he wasn't sure quite how to cope with it. "Well, maybe you should ask them if you can make those huevos you keep crowing about, James. And you know you're not supposed to call me 'Commander'." He took the tray from him and sat down on the narrow bed.

There was an extra cup of mashed potatoes on the tray and Shepard sighed. "You want to help me eat the wallpaper paste?" he waggled the cup at James and the young man sat down, chair creaking under his weight.

"..They've gotta make a decision soon, Shepard. You know they will." James said, as comfortingly as he could, shoving his finger into the pasty wad of potatoes.

Shepard was about to respond when James blinked and pulled out a sealed packet from the mash. "Uhm. Shepard."

Shepard grabbed the little packet from him and unwrapped it with a scowl. It was a biotic amp. Clearly modeled after the Serrice Council's elegant design but more streamlined. In fact, it had customised specifically for the rebuilt jack hidden at the base of Shepard's skull.

It was HIS amp.

"What the hell?" He said as a sharp sound cracked against the nearby window.

"We're fifty stories up." James' hand went to his sidearm as Shepard went to see.

A cartridge was stuck to the glass, not unlike the explosive wads carried in the Scorpion pistol. He scowled and opened the window as far as it would go, craning his arm to reach the glob.

"Shepard, what the hell are you doing? That's gonna.." James started but Shepard hushed him.

"It's not an explosive." He grunted as he pried it off the glass, staring at the little digital recorder embedded in the adhesive.

"Shepard." Garrus' voice drawled from it as he pushed the button. "We're gonna go after the Reapers. Thought you might like to come."

He peered out into the gloom. From a rooftop hundreds of yards away, there was the tiniest waggle of a sniper rifle's red light.

"Oh, Garrus, no." Shepard whacked his head against the glass.

He was going to have to decide what to do, and fast.


	4. A minor snag

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shepard hitches a ride

"Oh, this IS thrilling, isn't it, Shep?" A woman's voice suddenly said behind them, and James screamed like teenage girl at a pop concert.

Shepard turned around and blinked. "KASUMI? You have *got* to get out of here." He made a desperate, shooing motion towards the door while James tried his best to stop hyperventilating.

The thief's pout was clear even in the shadows. "Well, someone had to bring you an amp, Shep. I just happened to be in the.." She paused, as in the hallway, the fire alarms began to blare. "Ooop, and THERE's our cue." She planted a kiss scented like cherry blossoms on his cheek. "Be a dear and use the chaos to cover your escape? It's only baby little firecrackers in the ducts, but it's still going to be a bit of a mess."

She vanished in a shimmer of tactical cloak as Shepard sputtered her name. "Kasumi, wait... Ёбанный в рот~" he threw up his hands then fixed his bright stare on the Lieutenant. "Ok. so. It looks like I should go." He said apologetically. "Do you want me to... uh.. I dunno, punch you in the head or something? Plausible deniability and all that?"

"WHAT?" James looked back at the opened door, then looked at Shepard. "Even with all the stuff going on out there, you're not gonna get.."

"Huh? Oh, No. No. I'm not going out through the hallway." Shepard shrugged, slipping the amp into place. For a moment, his eyes rolled back as the near-pleasure of his powers returning shuddered through his nerves and a tiny moan caught in his throat. "I'm gonna biotic charge Garrus over there." He jerked his thumb at the red dot in the distance.

"You are fucking loco, you know that?" James folded his arms. "And...You should totally take a hostage. Just in case. You know?"

Shepard blinked, squinted at the dot of Garrus' sight and then looked back at James. "You ever take a ride with a vanguard before?"

"...no." James rubbed his arm. In the hallway, the alarms continued to blare and the heavy thud of soldier's footsteps grew nearer.

"Just. Just don't throw up on me." Shepard said, then grabbed James.

The door blew out with a flurry of books and furniture as Shepard vanished in thunderclap of brilliant blue.

~~

To his credit, James was too transfixed by the world in the charge corridor to vomit. Frozen blue-white and glittering, as if everything had been coated in diamonds and ice. This was how Shepard saw the world, this was..

Then suddenly they were rolling across the hard surface of the rooftop, and Shepard was picking himself up off the ground like he had a hangover. James looked around for a moment before it all hit him and the day's meals came back up all over a nearby turian's boots.

"Shepard. Nice of you to join me." Garrus' voice quivered with disgust. "You... you brought a passenger?"

Shepard rolled to a sitting position, holding his head. "Hostage." He groaned. "Goddamnit, James, you are way heavier than you look."

"I'm a hostage." James agreed weakly as he gave them a thumbs up.

"Riiiight." The plates over Garrus' eyes lifted. "Ok, well, we can't stay here, we've got to keep moving until our ride gets here."

"What, is Kasumi stealing a shuttle too?" Shepard grunted as Garrus helped him up. Behind them, a number of Alliance skycars rushed towards them. "because we are in deep shit, Garrus."

"Not exactly." Garrus made a purring cough that passed for a turian laugh, and closed his talons tight on Shepard's hand. "Come on, you two, run!"

~~

"We.. are.. not.. gonna... outrun.. a sky..car!" James panted as he he tried to keep up with Garrus' longer legs and Shepard's cybernetically enhanced pace. "I.. hope.. you have..a.."

"FREEZE!" An MP's voice blared from one of the cars. "COMMANDER SHEPARD AND ACCOMPLICES, STAND DOWN OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE."

"Hostage, pendejo! HOSTAGE!" James shouted back with a rude gesture. But they were out of rooftops.

Slowly, shepard turned with his hands up. "Ok, ok. Don't.. don't shoot." He said clearly, then whispered. "Garrus, ride?"

"Any second now." Garrus whispered back as the the soldiers closed in.

"LAY FACE DOWN! NOW!" The MP barked. "NOW!!!"

"Any.. second.." Garrus repeated hopefully before the cloudy sky above was suddenly rent with the roar of a frigate's maneouvering engines. It was half-painted, Cerberus gold partially redone in Alliance blue, but there was no mistaking her for anything else.

The MPs faces went slack and Shepard turned to look at the ship dropping down out of the sky. "You.. stole back the Normandy?" he squeaked.

"Well, technically, Kaidan did." Garrus scratched at his scars as the shuttle doors slid open.

"YOU GOT KAIDAN INVOLVED?" Shepard sputtered, looking back and forth between the turian and the man in dress blues holding on to one of the door struts. "GARRUS. NO."

"Yeah, well.. we can explain.." Garrus held up his hands as he jogged towards the ramp. Shepard shook his head and he and James followed as disruptor rounds sparked off the rooftop in their wake.

~~

"Shepard. Hi." Kaidan said after door had closed and they spent several moments staring at each other. "Hell of a thing, isn't it?"

"Kaidan. I thought. You. I. We." Shepard sputtered, then shook his head. He was certain his expression mirrored the sheepish, awkward one Kaidan wore. He wanted so desperately to touch him, convince himself this wasn't some hallucination brought on by confinement. But there was no time. "It's not that I don't appreciate all of you coming to bust me out but I don't want you to ... I don't want any of you to suffer for what I.."

"Garrus made a pretty good case for not waiting around." Kaidan rocked on his feet. "But reacquiring the Normandy .. we kind of hit a snag." he jerked his chin off to the side.

Slowly Shepard followed the motion to see a number of Alliance crew members sitting in the equipment cage in the corner of the shuttle bay. "Oh, no."

"This is my fault, Shepard." EDI's voice drifted from the speakers. "I mistakenly assumed they would evacuate the ship when I activated the fire suppression systems. But instead, they attempted to save it and rescue the Major and Jeff."

"Major?" Shepard blinked, then shook his head. "Wait. Joker's here too?"

"Fuck yes, I'm here. What, you think I'm gonna sit around on my ass while you go end the reapers and someone ELSE flies my baby, yeah no, I don't think so, boss." Joker snorted over the comms.

"Right. Ok." Shepard strode over to the equipment cage. "Look. Sorry about this. We can drop you off at Mars station or something since I'm pretty sure we're already out of Earth's orbit."

"Damn straight we're not sticking around!" Joker commented and Shepard rolled his eyes.

"If it's all the same, Commander." A man at the back of the cage stood up. "I think some of us might be interested in staying, if you're really going after the Reapers before they hit earth."

"ESTEBAN?" James practically shoved Shepard aside. "Commander, I know this guy, he's alright."

The man's deep blue eyes widened. "Mister Vega. I should have guessed if some half-crazed plan was going sideways, you'd be in on it."  
He paused. "Lieutenant Steve Cortez, sir." He added to Shepard with a quick salute.

"See, Commander? More hostages." James said proudly, and Shepard suddenly wondered if the lieutenant didn't actually know what the word meant.


End file.
